Manipur Is Still Burning: A Stark Indictment of New Delhi’s Failure

Even as India projects itself as a rising global power, touting digital revolutions, space exploration, and economic milestones, the situation in Manipur remains a glaring contradiction. Beneath the surface of national optimism lies a festering conflict that has turned one of the Northeast’s most beautiful states into a battlefield. Over a year after the outbreak of ethnic riots between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities, the Indian government is yet to restore peace, leave alone mete out justice.

The recent bout of violence at Churachandpur, where four civilians were killed in a shooting on June 30 and an ensuing clash between rival Kuki militant groups on the next day, highlights just how dangerous and precarious the situation still is. A deputy commander of a proscribed Kuki group was among the dead, together with two other militants and a 60-year-old woman who got caught in the crossfire. The United Kuki National Army (UKNA) has taken responsibility. These are not one-off events; they are part of a larger pattern, a state running amok.

And yet the response from New Delhi is as fractured as before.

A Year of Violence, A Legacy of Silence

Since violence erupted in May 2023, more than 60,000 have been uprooted, hundreds killed, and large sections of Manipur ethnically cleansed. Whole villages were destroyed. Schools, churches, and houses were burned. Civil society has broken down, and intercommunal mistrust is at a record high. But perhaps most astonishing is the political lack of concern to end this humanitarian disaster.

It took Prime Minister Narendra Modi over 75 days to speak out against the violence. Even then, his words were both non-empathetic and unclear. He did not announce any decisive action for reconciliation, resettlement, or justice. Rather, the state has been left an administrative afterthought, subject to President’s Rule in February 2025, an action that many hoped would reclaim order. Six months on, those expectations have turned out to be painfully naïve.

The Failure of Force-First Governance

The Indian state has been dependent for years on a security-centric, surveillance-dominant pattern of rule in trouble-torn areas such as Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, and the Northeast. In Manipur, too, the same script has been followed – sending in paramilitary forces, imposing internet shutdowns, and by-passing political institutions. But this has prevented little violence.

The much-talked-about improvement in law and order hides the reality on the ground. Civilians continue to be killed. Armed groups continue to act with impunity.Just a few days ago, two militants from banned insurgent groups were nabbed in Bishnupur and Imphal East with pistols and ammunition. What is the kind of governance that lets banned outfits walk freely, even after months of so-called central control?

If anything, President’s Rule has served only to confirm the impression that New Delhi lacks a long-term peace plan. It is a placeholder, not an answer. Without a political process, violence enters the void.

Peripheral State, Peripheral Response

Manipur’s tragedy is not just a product of ethnic tensions or insurgent activities. It is also the result of New Delhi’s political neglect, a recurring theme in India’s engagement with the Northeast. Despite being strategically crucial, sharing borders with Myanmar and lying along key trade routes, Manipur remains politically peripheral in the national imagination.

If the violence had unfolded in Delhi, Gujarat, or Uttar Pradesh, the country would have reacted promptly, openly, and mercilessly. Manipur has been allowed to bleed out of sight instead. When civil society organizations such as COCOMI (Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity) had gone to Delhi late in June to raise voices, including calls for territorial integrity, phased resettlement of the displaced, and revival of civil movement, their appeals were met with vague promises.

It is one sure sign that the Indian state is content to live with extended instability in the Northeast so long as it doesn’t leak into prime-time television.

Reconciliation Cannot Wait

The violence is not merely a law-and-order problem. It is political. It is ethnic. It is human. And any solution will be based on inclusive conversation, honest engagement, and a rejection of zero-sum politics. But that can only happen if the Indian government initially admits failure, failure to avert the crisis, failure to avert tensions in good time, and failure to ensure security for its own citizens.

What Manipur requires at this moment is neither more bureaucratic lip service nor cosmetic troop deployments. It requires a peaceful process that involves all ethnic stakeholders, unambiguous resettlement and justice timelines, and the revival of civil liberties, particularly digital access, which has been militarized through extended internet shutdowns.

A Crisis That Shames the Republic

Manipur today is a bloody reminder that India’s domestic fault lines are still unresolved at a perilous level. The ongoing violence is not merely a local tragedy but a national failure. A state that permits its citizens to live in fear of the gun, without justice, representation, or dignity, sacrifices its moral authority both nationally and internationally.

It is up to the Indian government to choose: will Manipur stand as a footnote in its ascent, or as the site where its democratic ideals were most horribly forsaken?